2 elderly women achieve their long-cherished academic dreams

Two elderly women from Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, who had to discontinue their education due to circumstances decades ago, have fulfilled their long-cherished dream of pursuing higher studies.

The two women, including a tribal, completed different academic programmes from the Nagpur regional centre of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) recently.

These two, along with another woman student of the IGNOU, were honoured with the ‘Inspirational Academic Achievement’ award by the university on the eve of the International Women’s Day for their determination and academic achievement.

Nagpur-based Aarti Mukherjee, 62, had to discontinue her studies in the final year of graduation 40 years ago. But decades later, she decided to take up BA Hindi programme and completed the course in December 2018.

“All these years, I had pain in my heart that I could not complete my studies. My mother knew about it. Eight years back, when she was ill, she asked me to complete my dream. In 2015, I took admission to the BA course in IGNOU,” she said.

Mukherjee, who now plans to pursue MA, said other women who could not complete theirstudies, should also pursue their dream like her.

Kamla Dhakade, 65, a tribal from Wadsa village in Gadchiroli district, had to leave studies after Class IV.

But after a gap of 55 years, she resumed studies and joined the Bachelor Preparatory Programme (BPP) course and completed in December last.

“I always had liking for studies,” Dhakade, who manages the finances of a Self Help Group (SHG) in her village, said. She now plans to do BA in Social Science.

Forty-four-year-old homemaker Monika Kasat (Kothari) from Amravati, who was also given the award on Thursday, had bagged IGNOU’s gold medal in BA exam conducted in 2010. She now plans to pursue MA English.